Tech Scouting and Assessment

Our goal is to identify and assess emerging and unexplored technologies that have the potential to disrupt the energy sector and the way we do our business.

Eva Schramm

eva.schramm@50hertz.com

At Elia Group, we have established a continuous screening process to spot and scout relevant emerging and breakthrough technologies and trends. We assess their potential impact and relevance in line with our strategic ambitions. In case the technology is deemed relevant, we go deep.

Emerging Tech Radar

To keep track of the technologies around us and their potential impact on TSO space, we have launched Elia Group Emerging Tech Radar.

The Tech Radar is a visual heat map that provides a structured overview of the maturity and potential impact of technologies spotted through our screening process in the context of our business areas.

On the TechRadar you will find technologies such as Space Solar Systems, Solid Pod, Graphene, Power Beaming, Quantum Computing, and dozens of other emerging technologies that could become real use cases within Elia Group and have an impact on our operations and society.

The Innovation team continuously scouts and evaluates innovative trends and amplifies the Radar with the most promising ones. We are always open to hear your opinion on the emerging technologies that we should keep an eye on in the coming years. If you have ideas and knowledge to share - feel free to reach out to our team
Feasibility Assessment through prototyping and proof-of-concept tests
In case we identify an opportunity to solve a business problem with an emerging technology, we start a ’deep tech analysis.’ We run proof-of-concept tests under real technical constraints to analyze our hypotheses, the maturity, feasibility, and potential benefit of a technology. It is an iterative process, through which we check how innovative technologies can be applied to solve challenges of our business operations today and tomorrow.

Following the tech’s positive evaluation, 2 outcomes are possible:

Creation of Centre of Excellence: in case the technology has deemed mature enough and can serve as a solution for business opportunities at scale;

Industrialize: in case technology and business opportunities coming out of the prototype are ready to be used and leveraged by the business.

Join us!

Of course, technology does not change the world on its own, that is why we at Elia Group actively collaborate with external partners. It helps us to find and apply new ways of working on business and technological challenges. Check out our innovation ecosystems to see whether you might be a good fit for solving our next challenges together.

Cross-Industry Innovators

We break down corporate limits by joining efforts with cross-industry players to drive efficient, and technology-enabled solutions.

Academics

For us, developing an extensive collaboration network with research institutes and universities is the key to fostering innovation and ensuring a continuous flow of talents.

Startups

We need inspiration and innovation to find new cutting-edge solutions that will help us achieve our mission and we cannot do it alone. That's why we are continuously scouting for start-ups.

VoltControl: Bringing decision support into the control rooms
The goal of Voltcontrol tool is to understand and anticipate the foreseeable future, and propose different actions, to reach an optimal voltage plan of the high voltage grid.
More information on the project
3D model of Princess Elisabeth Island
We are proud to unveil our 3D model of the groundbreaking offshore infrastructure project, Princess Elisabeth Island - the world’s first artificial energy island that combines both direct current (HVDC) and alternating current (HVAC).
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management
01 December 2022
Robots for autonomous inspection of HVDC Converter Halls
The robots will allow for frequent automated inspections whilst removing the need to interrupt electricity supply, lowering risks of undiscovered defects, and unplanned outages.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management|Drones
05 December 2022
Hyperspectral camera for condition assessment of painted metallic towers
Metallic towers, one of the main components of overhead lines, rust over time. This project aims to find out whether there is any technology out there that can detect rust behind the painting in a non-destructive way?
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management
14 December 2022
IEC61850 Engineering Process Common Vision
The Engineering Process Common Vision provides users with a shared view of IEC61850 engineering from the perspective of a number of different organisations. It provides stakeholders with a strong signal as a more flexible, efficient and standardised engineering process is adopted.
More information on the project
Consumer Centricity|With Incentive
16 December 2022
ReBeam protocol allows EV drivers to choose their energy retailer at public charging stations
The electrification of the mobility sector is one of the most important milestones we need to reach on the road to climate neutrality. To ensure it is successful, a large number of electric vehicles (EVs) and charging processes must be integrated into the energy system.
More information on the project
System Operations
25 December 2022
Quantum Computing in System Operation
Elia Group explored the capabilities and limitations of quantum solvers in a proof of concept to solve a complex optimization problem in system operation, measuring the accuracy and runtime of quantum solvers against classical ones.
More information on the project
Offshore
28 December 2022
Unmanned Surface Vehicles and offshore O&M activities
First test of USV to inspect offshore transmission assets 40 km off the Belgium coast in the North Sea
More information on the project
Offshore|AI
04 January 2023
Machine learning to optimize the success rate of offshore maintenance voyages
Elia is responsible for managing the MOG OSY platform, which transmits power from 4 offshore windfarms totaling 1 GW of capacity.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management|IoT
05 January 2023
Digital monitoring of SCOF cables
The SCOF Monitoring Project arose from the need to more efficiently address leaks coming from Elia’s underground self-contained oil-filled (SCOF) cables.
More information on the project
AI|System Operations
06 January 2023
Using Artificial Intelligence to reduce the cost of transmission losses
An artificial neural network allows 50Hertz now to calculate the estimated grid losses for the next day.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management|Drones
07 January 2023
SAFIR | U-space drone demonstrations
The SAFIR consortium, a group of 13 public and private organisations, has been selected by Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) to demonstrate integrated Drone Traffic Management for a broad range of drone operations in Belgium.
More information on the project
System Operations|AI
08 January 2023
Forecasting deterministic frequency deviations using artificial intelligence
European electricity production and shifts in demand undergo periodic schedule changes according to market clearance on an hourly basis.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management|AI
09 January 2023
Predictive Asset Management to avoid incidents with energy not supplied on aged asset systems
Older grid parts with assets are forced to extend their lifetime due to the reality of capex and workload arbitrage.
More information on the project
System Operations
10 January 2023
DARE – Dynamic daily dimensioning of reserve needs
To keep the frequency at 50 Hz, the Elia Group needs to dispose of balancing services, which is also referred to as reserve capacity or frequency restoration reserve (FRR).
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management|Drones
11 January 2023
Use of UAVs and AI to determine health index of overhead lines
More information on the project
System Operations
12 January 2023
Osmose: improving flexibility integration
As renewable energy uptake is accelerating, access to flexibility is becoming a key requirement to make the energy transition possible.
More information on the project
Consumer Centricity|System Operations|Blockchain|With Incentive
13 January 2023
Market integration of electric vehicles using blockchain technology
Electric vehicles (EV) are the fastest growing decentralized energy resources (DER).
More information on the project
System Operations
14 January 2023
Open data
The Opendata initiative started with simple goals: demystify the concept and understand the underlying advantage of exposing our data freely.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management
16 January 2023
Acoustic sensors to monitor critical assets (OIC 2019)
The NEMO Link converter station connects the electricity system of Belgium and Great Britain via subsea cables.
More information on the project
Consumer Centricity
17 January 2023
Sensa – Define your comfort level, we take care of the rest
Sensa project has been designed and shaped in the context of the IO.Energy Ecosystem.
More information on the project
System Operations|Consumer Centricity
18 January 2023
Using electric vehicles to balance the network
Recent predictions of electric vehicle (EV) uptake state that by 2030, 1.2 million EVs will be in use in Belgium. If managed incorrectly, these new types of consumption can put a significant pressure on the grid, for instance by increasing the evening peak load.
More information on the project
System Operations|AI
19 January 2023
Improve forecasting of electricity production and consumption (OIC 2018)
In 2018, after a successful first edition that resulted in a tool that is currently used to improve our public acceptance, Elia Group launched its second Open Innovation Challenge for startups.
More information on the project
System Operations|AI
20 January 2023
Simplify – Advanced Machine Learning to support balancing the system
Keeping the balance in the grid is essential: the injection of power must always be equal to the consumption to keep the frequency at 50Hz. Due to the increasing penetration of limitedly predictable renewable energy, balancing the system could become increasingly challenging.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management|With Incentive|AI
21 January 2023
Synapse: innovative operational planning enabled by Advanced Analytics
Building tomorrow’s infrastructure and maintaining Elia’s grid and its equipment is crucial to guarantee the security of electricity supply for several million consumers.
More information on the project
System Operations|AI|With Incentive
22 January 2023
Fast grid topology reconfiguration
Today only highly experienced system operators, backed by trial-and-error simulations, can perform fast topology reconfigurations. However, mainly based on what is known to work, potentially better actions are left untested.
More information on the project
System Operations
23 January 2023
Local Inertia
The de-commissioning of nuclear power plants (and more generally, all types of conventional thermal power plants) is decreasing the inertia of the Belgian power system.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management
24 January 2023
3D printing spare parts
Starting with logistics and spare parts management, Elia is exploring the use of 3D printing throughout the company.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management
26 January 2023
How to improve public acceptance of our infrastructure (OIC 2017)
In 2016, Elia first organised the Start-Up/Open Innovation Challenge in order to identify start-ups that are proposing tools to enhance public acceptance of infrastructure projects. The contest was won by Gilytics, a Zurich-based start-up.
More information on the project
System Operations
27 January 2023
Distributed Flexibility
Elia needs to find alternative sources of flexibility from installations connected to distribution systems in order to ensure grid security in the most cost efficient way.
More information on the project
Infrastructure & Asset Management
28 January 2023
R2 Wind: Exploring wind farm's contribution to balancing
RES will need to participate in all balancing reserves markets. This pilot project investigated the technical capability of wind farms to regulate their power infeed in real-time to balance the active power in the grid (in collaboration with Eneco, WindVision and Enercon).
More information on the project

Tech Scouting and Assessment

Join us!

Cross-Industry Innovators

Academics

Startups

VoltControl: Bringing decision support into the control rooms

3D model of Princess Elisabeth Island

Robots for autonomous inspection of HVDC Converter Halls

Hyperspectral camera for condition assessment of painted metallic towers

IEC61850 Engineering Process Common Vision

ReBeam protocol allows EV drivers to choose their energy retailer at public charging stations

Quantum Computing in System Operation

Unmanned Surface Vehicles and offshore O&M activities

Machine learning to optimize the success rate of offshore maintenance voyages

Digital monitoring of SCOF cables

Using Artificial Intelligence to reduce the cost of transmission losses

SAFIR | U-space drone demonstrations

Forecasting deterministic frequency deviations using artificial intelligence

Predictive Asset Management to avoid incidents with energy not supplied on aged asset systems

DARE – Dynamic daily dimensioning of reserve needs

Use of UAVs and AI to determine health index of overhead lines

Osmose: improving flexibility integration

Market integration of electric vehicles using blockchain technology

Open data

Acoustic sensors to monitor critical assets (OIC 2019)

Sensa – Define your comfort level, we take care of the rest

Using electric vehicles to balance the network

Improve forecasting of electricity production and consumption (OIC 2018)

Simplify – Advanced Machine Learning to support balancing the system

Synapse: innovative operational planning enabled by Advanced Analytics

Fast grid topology reconfiguration

Local Inertia

3D printing spare parts

How to improve public acceptance of our infrastructure (OIC 2017)

Distributed Flexibility

R2 Wind: Exploring wind farm's contribution to balancing

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